From Rembrandt’s teen age to Picasso’s old age: etchings

In museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, The Netherlands, there is the exhibition Rembrandt the Narrator.

It is an exhibition of Rembrandt etchings from the Frits Lugt collection.

It is from 13 April to 3 September 2006.

Rembrandt’s subjects shown include everyday life scenes, biblical and mythological stories.

Like in his paintings, also in his etchings Rembrandt’s use of light and darkness brought passion and dramatism to the narratives.

From 12 April to 12 July 2006, also in the Lakenhal, is the exhibition Rembrandt & Picasso.

Especially in his later work, Pablo Picasso was inspired by old masters.

In a series of etchings, he rivalled Rembrandt’s masterly art of narrative in black and white.

Today, to Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, to see these two exhibitions.

The smallest of the two exhibitions, the Picasso exhibition, is in the hall just after the entrance.

Some of the Rembrandt inspired Picasso etchings there are from 1934, some from 1971; showing Picasso’s interest in Rembrandt was not a passing phase, but lasted for decades.

The bigger exhibition, of Rembrandt on the second floor, tells also about Rembrandt’s inspirations: Albrecht Dürer (for Rembrandt’s Death of the Virgin from 1639), Jacques Callot, Lucas van Leyden.

Like on the ground floor of the Lakenhal was Rembrandt’s first known painting, from his teens in 1624, The Spectacles Peddlers; the special exhibition started with Rembrandt’s first known etching, from 1626: The Circumcision of Jesus.

Etching was a new development in the times of Rembrandt, more accessible than copper engraving had been in the sixteenth century.

Rembrandt and Picasso, by Simon Schama: here.